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Let's be honest, being injured sucks! In a big way. All of us, no matter whether we fool around on boulders, crush hard on sport routes or love placing wigglies, hate being injured. Worst of all is having time to climb and being unable to do so. Sadly, as we get older, these injuries become more frequent and more debilitating. Bouldering is definitely the most aggravating type of climbing that one can pursue, but just so happens to be my favourite pastime. Add that to my other chosen pursuit, Jiu Jitsu and you have a dynamite combo forever lurking in the background, waiting to mess you up...
So, unsurprisingly, in November, I had surgery on my elbow to remove a bone spur and to give it a bit of a clean up. One too many gastons or one too many armbars meant that I was left with a permanently aggravated elbow which I couldn't straighten nor bend the whole way. The surgery itself wasn't a big deal, four small incisions, a bit of cutting and scraping and you're away, but it's what comesRead More...

I almost forgot how good Font really is. It's been too long. This trip was all about our team preparing for the next season. I went there as a coach and I wanted to climb along with our strong guys and girls but unfortunately I got sick. The weather was perfect for all 8 days (I still can't believe it) and I enjoyed climbing some easier stuff and I got to see some new areas that I've never been to before. It was not my time to climb anyway and it was cool to see our team crushing day after day. I'm planning to go back this fall, for a bit longer than a week. It's truly the best place in the world (if it doesn't rain). Here are a few moments when I felt a bit better and I tried to climb :)
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I recently watched a few buddies having good time on the Moon Board and it was great to see them getting so hooked by this small piece of wood, despite everything else our gym has to offer.
It reminded me of period almost two decades ago when the system boards where smaller than the standard Moon Board. At the time it was our only indoor training tool. There were bunch of them on different locations in Split and we trained on them like crazy.
Most of the time I spent at Joke Purko's place whose board was super fingery and with best collection of home made wooden holds. I remember a hard 30-40 move problems we climbed standing on the same footholds because the board was so small that we could reach nearly all the holds without moving our feet.
At Zlodre board we were wild and loud. This board was definitely more sophisticated. It had option to change the angle of the overhang and it was the first board in Split with few modern Lapis holds bought in Slovenia.
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North East climber and photographer Mark Savage recently sent me a photo of the damage done to the classic Bowden problem Vienna. The damage is obviously due to its popularity and Vienna is certainly not unique in this respect. There will be classic problems all over the country which are sadly changing for the worst.
One of the causes of this damage is from excessive brushing to remove excess chalk so as to improve the grip between fingers and rock. We all do it and it’s almost become a ritual, part of the mental process of preparing for a hard send. However it’s worth questioning how effective this process is, is it worth the damage it causes and are there better alternatives for improving the friction and therefore your chances of success?
I have done plenty of brushing in my time and my company even sells brushes but in most cases I don’t actually believe it does help to improve the friction. The only cases where it might help are where the hold obviously hasn’t beeRead More...

[caption id="attachment_17443" align="aligncenter" width="980"] Insantiy of Grandeur, 8C - Chironico. Pic by angelawagner.ch[/caption]
Already back in 2004 I was sitting underneath this big boulder in the 101-area at Chironico. I wanted to try the newly established problems "Einfisch" and "Delusion" but unintendedly tried them from a lower (and much harder) start. I could not do one move from that lower start but also was unable to climb more then a few moves from the existing problems. But from the very moment I was hooked up by the features and the lines on that impressive boulder, it looked just too good not to be climbed.
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Now that the School Room is back in business and we have a sexy new Moon Board to train on we thought it was time to make a short film explaining the concept and benefits of training on a Moon Board. We hope you find this film helpful and motivating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mgl1hNgXr1oRead More...

Last few months my climbing was mixture of everything. I was not focused on any particular project or strict training plan because I felt tired of the intense rhythm I held for months. This time I decided to follow my instinct and keep things as simple as possible - even if it meant climbing just once or twice per week.

This relaxed approach taught me about less is more philosophy which I have heard about but never really tried it. Of course, you cant expect to improve this way but surely you will have more energy and this is what I wanted.
At first it was kind of surprising how your climbing can stay on rather high level despite few sessions per week less than usually. I climbed less but quality of the sessions raised.
The other good thing which came with this energy boom was strong idea to change regular routines and spice things up a bit. So, beside running a lot I did some training sessions at home, got our crashpads out from the basement , visRead More...